The present invention relates to systems and methods for determining a user's requirements and preferred features with respect to a product or set of products. Specifically, it relates to methods and systems for gathering this information with a minimum of effort required from the user.
Those offering high-value services and products face a problem of determining user needs and preferences. For example, a user looking to purchase software in a complex field such as customer relations management or resource management may wish to evaluate several software packages. The software packages may have a multitude of possible features and optional components, making it time-consuming for the user to determine which features, options, and benefits would most effectively meet his needs.
It is therefore difficult for one offering products or product information to determine which products or services most interest the customer, and which product features and options are required or desired. Surveys and indirect information-gathering techniques, such as inferring customer preferences from a set of web sites visited by the user, are used to gather such information. These information-gathering techniques are either unreliable (in the case of information inferred from customer actions) or burdensome on customers (in the case of surveys and similar methods). Data obtained from, e.g., surveys and request forms is also often inaccurate, since the customer is responding to questions asked out of context. For example, a customer who indicates that he places a low value on the product feature “frequent software upgrades” may not completely understand why one would want frequent updates, and therefore rank it lower than if he understood the relevant benefits. Including such information in the survey process will generally increase the time burden on users, making it less likely that they will be willing to complete the process. Similarly, asking for a complete customer profile from every visitor to a website, for example, is not feasible. Therefore a system is needed that allows for those offering products or services to easily associate product features, options, and benefits with relevant information, and provide a simple way for customers to indicate their preferences and requirements with a minimum of effort.